Turner Ashby
|died = |image= |caption= |nickname= "Black Knight of the Confederacy" |placeofbirth= Fauquier County, Virginia |placeofdeath= Harrisonburg, Virginia |placeofburial= Stonewall Cemetery, Winchester, Virginia |placeofburial_label= Place of burial |allegiance= United States of America Confederate States of America |branch= Confederate States Army Cavalry |serviceyears= 1861–62 |rank= Brigadier General |unit= |commands= |battles= American Civil War *Valley Campaign *First Battle of Kernstown |awards= |relations= |laterwork= }} Turner Ashby, Junior (October 23, 1828 – June 6, 1862) was a Confederate cavalry brigadier general in the American Civil War. He had achieved prominence as Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson's cavalry commander in the Shenandoah Valley when he was killed in battle in 1862. Early years Turner Ashby, Jr. was born at Rose Bank Plantation in Fauquier County, Virginia, to Turner Sr. and Dorothea Green Asbhy.Dupuy, p. 49. As a child he often played in the waters of nearby Goose Creek. His father died when he was young, and Turner was raised by his mother. In later years, he bought a residence near his childhood home and named it Wolfe's Crag. His father had fought as a colonel in the War of 1812, and his grandfather Jack Ashby served as a captain during the American Revolutionary War.Eicher, p. 587. Ashby was privately educated. Prior to military service he was engaged in business and farming, enjoying modest success at both. He was also known for his chivalry: when a young male guest at a party insulted Ashby and called him out to a duel, Ashby insisted that since he was the host, he would not duel the guest, who being young and inexperienced with guns was unlikely to walk away alive. An accomplished horseman at an early age, Ashby in his 20s organized a cavalry company of his friends known as the Mountain Rangers. The Mountain Rangers were absorbed into the Virginia Militia in 1859 following John Brown's raid at Harpers Ferry; they performed guard duty at Charles Town during Brown's trial and execution. Ashby made the statement that the Civil War really began with John Brown's insurrection. Ashby was an avid follower of politics and ran for the state legislature, but was a Whig (the minority party in Fauquier County) and follower of Henry Clay, and was not elected. After the start of the Civil War, though he'd disapproved of secession, when it became obvious that Virginia would secede, Ashby persuaded Governor John Letcher to order the militia to capture the federal arsenal at Harpers Ferry. When secession was approved, Ashby made his move, but U.S. forces burned most of the arsenal buildings and 15,000 small arms before he could arrive. Civil War At Harpers Ferry, Ashby was assigned to the Virginia Militia command of Colonel Thomas J. "Stonewall" Jackson. He was responsible for guarding fords across the Potomac River and bridges from Harpers Ferry to Point of Rocks, Maryland. His command assisted Maryland men with Confederate sympathies to pass into Virginia, and they disrupted railroad traffic on the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad and interfered with the passage of boats on the Chesapeake and Ohio Canal. Ashby suffered a personal loss when his brother Richard was killed during an engagement with a Union patrol along the Potomac in June 1861. Ashby, convinced his brother had been bayoneted while trying to surrender after he had a chance to examine his corpse, came to hate Northerners and desired revenge. On July 23, 1861, Brigadier General Joseph E. Johnston appointed Ashby lieutenant colonel of the 7th Virginia Cavalry. Due to the illness of the regimental commander, Ashby had effective control of half of the regiment, which he operated separately. When the commander retired in February 1862, Ashby assumed command of the entire regiment on March 12. Ashby organized the first Confederate horse artillery, named Chew's Battery, as part of this regiment. The 7th did not participate directly in the First Battle of Manassas, but Ashby aided the Confederate cause by screening the movement of Johnston's army to the Manassas area. The Union had hoped that Johnston's forces would be pinned down by Major General Robert Patterson, but Ashby's screen allowed Johnston to move freely without Patterson's interference. By the spring of 1862, the 7th Virginia had reached the enormous size of 27 infantry and cavalry companies, much larger than a typical Civil War regiment. Stonewall Jackson, in overall command of the Shenandoah Valley, tried to correct the situation by stripping Ashby of his cavalry forces, ordering them to be assigned to two infantry brigades. Ashby threatened to resign in protest and Jackson backed down. Jackson continued to resist Ashby's promotion to brigadier general, due to his formal military training and consequent lack of discipline.Henderson, p. 191. "His one shortcoming was his ignorance of drill and discipline." Nevertheless, Ashby's promotion came through on May 23, 1862, and he received his promotion and general's star in a ceremony at the Taylor Hotel in Winchester, Virginia. His permanent promotion was later confirmed by the Confederate Congress, before he died in June. Ashby cut a striking figure, called by many the "Black Knight of the Confederacy". He generally rode horses that were pure white or pure black. A civilian in the Valley named Thomas A. Ashby (no relation) wrote about an encounter with him: Valley Campaign and death Ashby's vigorous reconnaissance and screening were factors in the success of Jackson's legendary Valley Campaign in the Shenandoah Valley in 1862. However, there were instances in which Ashby failed Jackson. At the First Battle of Kernstown, Jackson attacked a retreating Union column that Ashby had estimated to be four regiments of infantry, about the size of Jackson's force. It turned out to be an entire division of 9,000 men, and Jackson was forced to retreat. At the First Battle of Winchester, as Union forces under Maj. Gen. Nathaniel P. Banks were retreating, Ashby failed to cut off their retreat because his troopers were plundering captured wagons. It is possible that the Union forces could have been substantially destroyed if it were not for this lack of discipline. As Jackson's army withdrew from the pressure of Maj. Gen. John C. Frémont's superior forces, moving from Harrisonburg toward Port Republic, Ashby commanded the rear guard. On June 6, 1862, near Harrisonburg, the 1st New Jersey Cavalry attacked Ashby's position at Good's Farm. Although Ashby defeated the cavalry attack, a subsequent infantry engagement resulted in his horse being shot and Ashby charging ahead on foot.Dupuy, p. 49. " ... had his horse killed beneath him in the rearguard action at Harrisonburg, and was killed leading an attack on foot (June 6)..." Within a few steps, he was shot through the heart, killing him instantly.Eicher, p. 588. Attributes death to "hit in the chest and side ... " (The origin of the fatal shot has been lost to history. Soldiers of the 13th Pennsylvania Reserve Infantry, the "Bucktails", claimed credit, but some accounts blame friendly fire.) His last words were "Forward my brave men!" He had been promoted to brigadier general just ten days before his death. Legacy Stonewall Jackson's report of the engagement sums up the man (although, considering Jackson's resistance to Ashby's promotion, the eulogy might be an exaggeration in favor of the young man): Ashby was buried at the University of Virginia Cemetery, but in October, 1866, his body was reinterred at the Stonewall Cemetery in Winchester, Virginia next to the body of his younger brother Richard Ashby, who had died at Harpers Ferry in a skirmish with Union soldiers in 1861. Turner Ashby High School in Bridgewater, Virginia, is named in Ashby's honor. There is a tie to the naming of prominent Page County, Virginia businessman Major Ashby Roudabush (b. August 22, 1861 d. February 16, 1916). It seems that early in the war then Lieutenant Colonel Turner Ashby was riding with his regiment near one of the family's mills. Ashby saw the new child and asked if the boy had yet been named. When he learned that it had not, he pronounced that the boy be named "Major Ashby," for the boy could not outrank him. See also *List of American Civil War generals References *Ashby, Thomas A.: Life of Turner Ashby, Morningside House, 1988. * Dupuy, Trevor N., Johnson, Curt, and Bongard, David L., Harper Encyclopedia of Military Biography, Castle Books, 1992, 1st Ed., ISBN 0-7858-0437-4. * Eicher, John H., and Eicher, David J., Civil War High Commands, Stanford University Press, 2001, ISBN 0-8047-3641-3. *Henderson, G.F.R., Stonewall Jackson and the American Civil War, Barnes & Noble, Inc. 2006, ISBN 0-7607-7954-6. *Online biography *[http://stonewall.hut.ru/leaders/ashby2.htm Excerpt from The Valley Campaigns: Being the Reminiscences of a Non-Combatant While Between the Lines in the Shenandoah Valley During the War of the States By Thomas A. Ashby] * Retrieved on April 29, 2009 Notes External links *Turner Ashby Camp *[http://encyclopediavirginia.org/Ashby_Turner_1828-1862 Turner Ashby in Encyclopedia Virginia] Category:1828 births Category:1862 deaths Category:Confederate States Army generals Category:People from Winchester, Virginia Category:People of Virginia in the American Civil War Category:American military personnel killed in the American Civil War Category:United States Army Rangers Category:People from Fauquier County, Virginia Category:Fauquier County in the American Civil War de:Turner Ashby ja:ターナー・アシュビー fi:Turner Ashby vi:Turner Ashby